


Reasons To Start A Snowball Fight

by KatyaMorrigan



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, Fjerda, Flirting, Kissing, Matthias loves Nina in knitwear, Snowball Fight, Travel, he's working on being horny on main, lowkey sexual tension, not that he'd admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatyaMorrigan/pseuds/KatyaMorrigan
Summary: Nina and Matthias head to Fjerda - not for official business, just for a holiday. With most places shut down for the winter, Nina decides to take advantage of the weather and Matthias' traditional tastes in knitted garments, and buys herself a Fjerdan sweater so that they can embrace the snow and have some fun.
Relationships: Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	Reasons To Start A Snowball Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Day 7 of my NaNoWriMo writing challenge this year - one oneshot a day, every day for the whole of November. I'm following the SOFTober 2020 prompts by @wafflesandkruge on Instagram to give me some fluffy starting points for the coming month of fics.  
> The prompt for today was "snow".  
> I hope you enjoy!

The boat ride to Fjerda was nothing like Matthias had expected. He had left the country as a hero, become a villain while away, and was returning now as a displaced person pardoned by the Kerch government. But strangest of all was that the woman stood beside him on the deck was no longer someone he feared and despised – she was his girlfriend, and they were going back to his home country in order to plan the rest of their lives together.

Nina took to travelling by boat far more readily than Matthias did, and she had helped him through the first few days of rough waters and constant nausea. She held his hand through the times he was bent double over the railings or had to sit up in the night and breathe heavily through the rocking swells, and not once had she complained. It was ironic that Nina be the one providing nautical advice to someone who had been drafted as a navy soldier, but he was surviving because of her knowledge.

Fortunately the uneven waves had only lasted for a few days, and as they were finally approaching the eastern coast of Fjerda, it was becoming smoother with every passing hour. Matthias’ feelings were no more soothed by this though. Every waking moment he worried about what would happen upon his return. What would become of him? And of Nina? But every time he voiced these concerns, Nina would bring him back to reality: he had been pardoned. Nina was under legal protection as a Ravkan ambassador.

“And,” as she liked to remind him most frequently, “we are having a holiday. We are not going into the Ice Court again. You’re going to take me around your primitive fishing towns and take me to your strange village dances, and we’re going to have a bloody good time.”

“We do not have primitive fishing towns,” he objected, but the point was made. This was not a dangerous mission such as those they had already experienced. It was, first and foremost, time together.

Matthias drew up lists of things to do and places to go, but broadly Nina was not interested. She had no reason to see the importance of original settler’s homes, or the few museums documenting the development of their seaside communities. What had most intrigued her about Fjerda was the culture now, and she was desperate to try the food. Although it wasn’t well-known for being particularly good – or edible at times – food had always been a big motivator for her. And Matthias aimed to please.

But when they arrived at the port, it was all but shut down for the winter _. Of course it was_ , Matthias thought as they trudged out of the ship with their bags, _everyone knows that it’s impossible to go anywhere once the snow hits._ They managed to find one of the few lodges that remained open to tourists throughout the year and booked as many nights as they could there, but that was it: all pre-made plans were off.

Matthias thumped down on their bed and sighed heavily.

“It’s been so long since I was here… I’ve forgotten everything about what it’s like.”

“That’s not true,” Nina said firmly.

“I forgot about the winter lockdowns. How did I forget about that when we decided to come back here?”

“Because you were excited about the possibilities!” Nina stopped putting her clothes away and sat beside him on the bed. It bounced beneath her weight, and even then, Nina continued bouncing in an attempt to make him laugh. Matthias gave an amused exhale but nothing more.

“Look,” she continued, “you cannot sulk for the whole two weeks we’re here. We may be stuck in one of your totally not primitive fishing ports, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun.”

She tilted her head to look at him, and Matthias was struck all over again by her resilience. Nina really did just take everything on the chin.

“Not even gonna correct me on your extremely modern and not-at-all smelly fishing towns?” she teased, slipping her hand into his. Matthias squeezed it and gave her a proper smile.

“Is it really worth trying to?”

“I’d certainly like you to try. It’s much more fun winding you up if you rise to the occasion.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, and Matthias looked at Nina from the corner of his eye. She was still rosy from the cold outside, her hair tied up in a huge dumpling of a bun to disguise how dirty it was from the sea voyage with no opportunity to wash, and best of all, she was looking at him with equal interest. Matthias sighed and leaned over to press a kiss to her temple.

“Now,” she said, getting up from the bed and peering from their one miniscule window, “I want to go out in the snow. I have never seen a proper Fjerdan winter before, and I need to.”

“That’s a lie, you’ve been here in the snow before.”

“Well yes, but neither of those occasions were particularly relaxing for me,” Nina said, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she turned back to Matthias. “This time, I can fully embrace the Fjerdan way of life.”

“Please don’t.”

“Scared I’m going to ruin it for you?” she grinned. “Don’t want to see me in your ugly knitwear again?”

“I didn’t say that…”

“Good! Because I’m pretty sure I’ll freeze out there without some disgusting woolly garments, so let’s go and buy some.”

And because he was a fool, and deeply in love with her, Matthias accompanied Nina to one of the few tailors in the portside town. It was hardly even a tailors – it was owned by two elderly women, who seemed to just weave whatever clothing they felt like, in whatever sizes they felt like, and sell it on to their neighbours cheaply.

It certainly wasn’t the place for Nina to go, and Matthias felt a stab of awkwardness as she walked brazenly through the shop, unaware of how out of place she was, comfortably rifling through the stacks of sweaters with no concern for the space she took up as a large Ravkan woman.

“What colour of Fjerdan wool would suit me best, babe?” she asked him, beckoning Matthias over from his uncomfortable hovering beside the door. “I’m thinking this cream colour, but if you want to debate the merits of beige or tan with me, I’m willing to compromise.”

“I don’t think it’s going to matter once it’s been soaked through in the snow,” he said, but Nina brushed off his concerns.

“What matters to me is that you get to see me as your lovely Fjerdan bride for a bit. So you have to decide: did you envisage your future wife in cream, tan, or beige?”

“You’re really working hard at this, aren’t you.”

“Don’t try to pretend you’re not champing at the bit to see me in some bland neutral tone,” she said lightly, fixing him with her piercing green stare. Matthias felt himself get rather warm.

“I’m going to assume you have no preference and buy this cream thing, then,” she decided, lifting it from the pile.

“Fine, okay, don’t get that one,” Matthias sighed, putting his hands over hers and replacing the sweater. “Get the Fairisle one from over here.”

He brought over the one sweater that had actually caught his eye as one that Nina would look good in. It was a rust-red knit with a collar of grey mixed-thread patterns that ended up looking sea-green against the rest of the sweater.

Matthias handed it to her, trying not to look at her face.

“It, ahem. Matches your colouring.” He was burning up trying not to sound like… Like what? Like he loved her?

“You know what?” Nina said.

“What?”

“You’re absolutely right, and I’m gobsmacked you noticed this one. I think it will actually suit me as opposed to the rest of them.”

She held it up against her chest and tossed her head back, exposing her long pale throat. Matthias swallowed.

“How does it look?” she asked, turning this way and that.

It looked great. Her bright hair almost melted into the body of the sweater, making it look even more fiery and bright even while it unwashed. And the greenish grey of the added embroidery picked up the details of her eyes, the pale irises ringed with that deep emerald green, and made them all the more magnetic. It hit Matthias again that his girlfriend was beautiful, stunning, more alluring than anyone he could ever have foreseen himself living with.

And then she asked him questions like how good she looked, and suddenly he was a brusque soldier again, desperate to stay stoic and dominant in the face of someone as powerful as her. But he wasn’t a Drüskelle anymore. He was just Matthias, shopping with his girlfriend, watching her pick through questionable knitwear in the hopes of appealing to his traditional tastes.

“You look really good,” he managed, swallowing again as Nina smirked.

“I think that’s the most inappropriate you’ve ever been in a public place,” she said. “For you, that was like saying “get behind that wall and prepare to s—”

“Can we just buy the thing already?” he pleaded as Nina cackled, pressing a hand to his chest as she leaning closer and kissed him on the cheek.

They bought the damn sweater and Nina put it on immediately, the heavy wool of the Fjerdan variety immediately dwarfing even her substantial frame. She did indeed look fantastic, even as she replaced her Kerch overcoat and covered most of it up again.

“Am I allowed to play in the snow now?” she asked, grabbing Matthia’s hands in hers and bouncing on the spot. “I’m dressed appropriately, and now I want to be a kid.”

“Since when did I stop you from having fun?”

Nina erupted into laughter at that, and even he saw the funny side. Matthias tried to object, but kept lapsing into chuckles as Nina poked his chin and leaned against him with laughter.

“Oh Matthias, you’re just brilliant,” she said when she could finally speak again.

They walked a short way out of town, hand in hand, through the wide streets that eventually branched into open land fringed by intervals of trees. Here was where the snow really piled up, as few people bothered to head this far out of town and few animals went this far from the shelter of the copses.

The ground was perfectly untouched, beautifully smooth and even and altogether satisfying to look at. Matthias had a strong feeling that it would not look like that for long. Nina tugged at his hand and brought them into a short jog, giggling as she stepped into the deep snow drifts with her waxed leather boots.

“I can’t believe I’m in Fjerdan snow!” she said gleefully, stomping down hard with every step. Matthias laughed as she bent down to pick up handfuls of snow in her gloved hands, looking at it with childlike wonder.

Then Nina’s expression changed as she looked back at Matthias. It took him a second to realise what this meant, but before he could react, Nina had run up to him and stuffed a handful of snow down the front of his shirt.

“Argh! Nina!”

She cackled in response, running away immediately as he leaned down and collected his own snowballs, chasing after her and pelting her with them. Nina was laughing so hard that she couldn’t object particularly loudly, and he quickly caught up with her, dripping icy water down the back of her neck as he wrapped his arms around her and tried to push snow down her brand new Fjerdan sweater.

“Abuse! Abuse!” she cried out, shrieking as he managed to get a handful in. “That’s so cold!”

“Now do you see why we don’t start snowball fights?” he panted, still holding her in a tight bear hug from behind as she wriggled around.

“On the contrary, I think I’ve found out exactly why we start them.”

Nina bent down and slipped under Matthias’ grip, running a short distance and preparing more projectiles. He was still panting for air and trying to get his bearing so that he could provide equal opposition to Nina’s onslaught, and just managed to retaliate with his own barrage as Nina began to throw again.

They danced around each other for what felt like hours, collecting snowballs and dodging the other’s as they taunted each other and laughed, breathless and warm in the freezing outside.

After so much physical exercise, Nina finally flopped onto the ground, collapsing into a deep snow drift and then making a snow angel as she lay there. Matthias was exhausted too by this point, and he ambled over before dropping into the snow beside her.

“Hey,” he said, still trying to catch his breath.

“Hey,” Nina replied. Her eyelashes were coated in the pale flakes, and her lips and nose were so pink against her pale skin. She looked like something from a painting, some divine creature luring him into her embrace while they lay in the cold. In all honesty, Matthias would happily die there just to see her glowing face give him a breathless smile as they lay together in a snow drift.

He leaned over and kissed her, feeling how cold her mouth was and how immediately she sank against his own warmer lips. Nina never kissed politely, never held back, and wrapped an arm around the back of his head to keep Matthias closer while she kissed him fervently.

It was so easy to tangle himself against her, pull his torso on top of hers and bury a hand in her fiery hair as she pushed her tongue against his, breathless now for other reasons. How could he have been cold before? How was it that the world around them was still silent from the snow when there was this much heat between their mouths?

Matthias pulled away and looked at Nina again. She was still rosy and beautiful, but now her lips were plush and soft from the warmth. And she was giving him a wide grin as she moved her hand behind his head and pulled gently on his long blond hair.

“I’m not doing this outside,” he said.

“Then let’s go back inside.”

Matthias helped her to scrape the last bits of ice from inside her sweater,with much enthusiasm from Nina at having his hands under her clothes, before they headed back to the lodge. They ran back across the field, soaked through from the snow melting against their bodies, and still holding hands.

**Author's Note:**

> This literally had zero proofreading, so apologies if it doesn't make much sense - I'll revisit it someday when I have the time and make sure it is up to standard. I just needed some cute Helnik for today though, and so that's what we have. 
> 
> Tomorrow's prompt is "moonlight", and it will be a Hogwarts-based Dramione fic.


End file.
